The term intelligent package generally refers to a package that can electronically store, log, and/or reveal information about one or more products contained in the package. Package-borne intelligence can also store, log, and/or reveal information about how the package has been handled in a delivery chain. A simple example of an intelligent package is one equipped with an RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag.
More elaborate examples of intelligent packages are known for example from the patent publication WO 2011/161299. It introduces the idea of attaching a communications module to a package, such as a consumer package of pharmaceuticals. The package, which may take for example the form of a blister sheet for individual pills, comprises conductive tracks that constitute some simple electric circuitry. When the communications module is attached to the package, an interface section of the module makes contact with conductive patches on the package, so that the module can notice changes that affect the state of said electric circuitry. As an example, if a patient removes a pill from the package by pushing it through the bottom layer of the blister sheet, the rupturing bottom layer may cut one or more conductive tracks, which the communications module notices as a change in the electric conductivity between certain conductive patches.
Despite its significant advantages, the technical solution described above leaves room for improvement, particularly relating to the interface between the package and the communications module. Concerning medical applications, patients may have for example visual or motoric disabilities that make it difficult for them to change the communications module from an exhausted package to a new one by themselves. Even if the task of attaching a communications module to a package was entrusted to trained personnel, the possibility of human error and even a simple thing like manufacturing tolerances may cause difficulties in making the combination function properly. In other kinds of applications the known solution may be considered inflexible in terms of limiting the design of the package.